This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Development of XML standards for the representation and transmission of glycan structural information. Integrated data processing demands facile information exchange between databases, web services, and other applications. We are developing a standard called GLYDE (GLYcan Data Exchange) using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) that can be understood by commonly used parsing tools, making it accessible to a wide range of potential applications. The utility of GLYDE, our XML format for the unambiguous representation of glycan structures, was recognized by scientists at the German Cancer Research Center and the Consortium for Functional Glycomics. Subsequent discussions led to the initiation of an informal collaboration aimed at developing GLYDE for use as a standard format for the digital transmission of glycan structural information between laboratories. Continued correspondence, via email and on the EUROCarbDB Forum (http://www.dkfz.de/spec/EuroCarbDB_forum/), have led to a greater appreciation of the issues that must be solved to make a truly useful representational standard. The collaboration emphasizes the continued development of GLYDE-II, which is much more flexible and enables the representation of glycans and glycoconjugates at different levels of granularity.